Bath Ventilation with HRV = Smart Move!

Add an energy efficient fresh air system to your bathroom ventilation strategy!

American Aldes has developed new technology that makes it possible to turn a whole house IAQ system into a highly effective central bathroom ventilation system and vice versa.

This VentZone IAQ System utilizes a whole house Heat Recovery System combined with Zone Register Terminals to remove stale and humid air from the bathrooms at a low volume continuous rate and provides a high volume boosted rate when the bathrooms are occupied. By doing this homeowners are able to recover the energy (heating or cooling) from stale air drawn from the bathrooms to condition fresh air being brought into the home. This technology makes far more sense than sending conditioned air from common areas into an HRV or ERV and having multiple noisy bathroom fans all blowing tempered air out of multiple penetrations through the roof.

This is accomplished by installing automatic self-balancing Constant Airflow Regulators through motorized damper doors in Zone Register Terminals (ZRTs) in the ceiling of each bathroom of the home. Each ZRT also contains a micro-switch that tells the Energy Recovery System to boost airflow when the motorized damper opens during the times the bathrooms are in use. By utilizing regulated and balanced airflow controls, homeowners benefit from maximum energy savings, comfort and IAQ improvement.

Even though this technology delivers far greater performance and IAQ benefit than standalone bath fans and an HRV unit bolted onto a furnace, the cost for a complete system with heat recovery retails for very affordable price.

With the new Energy Efficiency standards and codes being introduced (such as ASHRAE 62.2 and California's Title 24) builders are able to utilize the VentZone IAQ system to meet code requirements, improve performance and save costs by installing one simple system.

Each VentZone terminal contains a primary flow damper that opens when called upon by a switch, timer, dehumidistat, or occupancy sensor. Once the damper is opened - the VentZone terminal signals the HRV to operate on high speed and only boosts flow from the open VentZone terminal. This provides the distinct advantage of allowing the fan to only ventilate specific spaces when called upon, again without the need for separate fans in each space. This is especially important in residential bath exhaust applications using popular in-line and multi-port fans, where extremely low noise and single exterior vent penetrations are desired.

With this kit - the fan in the HRV will run continuously - offering 10, 20, or 30 CFM of constant ventilation in each bathroom - plus fresh air supply to different areas of your home. When local switch is activated - the primary control damper will open - boosting the ventilation to a high level (amount of airflow can be regulated precisely via an optional Constant Airflow Regulator inserted into the "neck" of the register terminal).

How does the HRV / ERV work?

HRVs and ERVs use internal fans to pull fresh air into your home and pull out stale air at the same time. The magic to this is in the "core". The core is a special chamber in the center of the HRV or ERV that air passes through. Exhausted stale air and the fresh ventilation air pass through multiple air passages in the core separated by an engineered material (aluminum or plastic). Sensible heat transfers from the warm to the cool air stream. The fresh incoming air is automatically pre-heated or pre-cooled depending on the season. This dramatically reduces the energy costs of ventilation.